Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone, Let My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, If our two loves be one, both thou and I Love just alike in all, and such loves never die," The following, though not entirely without the faults of his style, is exceedingly graceful and elegant : “The Dream. "Dear love, for nothing less than thee For reason, much too strong for phantasy ; My dream thou brok'st not, but continued it. * As lightning, or a taper's light, Thine eyes, and not thy noise, wak'd me; Yet I thought thee (For thou lov'st truth) an angel, at first sight; But when I saw thou saw'st my heart, And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an angel's art, When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st when I must confess it could not chuse but be Profane to think thee any thing but thee.” What follows is extremely solemn and fine, and scarcely at all disfigured by the author's characteristic faults : "The Apparition. "When by thy scorn, O murderess, I am dead, And that thou thinkest thee free From all solicitation from me, Then shall my ghost come to thy bed, And thee (fain'd vestal) in worse arms shall see. Then thy sick taper will begin to wink, And he, whose thou art then, being tired before, And in false sleep from thee shrink'; And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou, What I will say, I will not tell thee now, Lest that preserve thee. And since my love is spent, Than by my threatenings rest still innocent." The next specimens that we shall give of this singular writer will be taken from among those of his poems which unite, in a nearly equal proportion, his characteristic faults and beauties; and which may be considered as scarcely less worthy of attention than the foregoing, partly on account of that very union of opposite qualities, but chiefly on account of their remarkable fullness of thought and imagery; in which, indeed, his very worst pieces abound to overflowing. Notwithstanding the extravagance, as well as the ingenuity, which characterise the two following pieces, there is an air of sincerity about them, which renders their general effect impressive, and even solemn; to say nothing of their individual beauties, both of thought and expression. 101 “The Anniversary. "All kings, and all their favourites ; The sun itself, which makes times, as these pass, When thou and I first one another saw... This, no to-morrow hath, nor yesterday; Two graves must hide thine and my corse; (Who prince enough in one another be) Must leave at last in death these eyes and ears, Oft fed with true oaths, and with sweet salt tears. But souls where nothing dwells but love, (All other thoughts being inmates) then shall prove, When bodies to their graves, souls from their graves remove. And then we shall be thoro❜ly blest; But now, no more than all the rest. Here upon earth we are kings, and none but we Let us love nobly, and live, and add again Unto threescore: this is the second of our reign." "Love's Growth. "I scarce believe my love to be so pure As I had thought it was, Because it doth endure Vicissitude and season, as the grass. Methinks I lied all winter when I swore My love was infinite, if Spring can make it more. But if this med'cine, Love, which cures all sorrow Love sometimes would contemplate, sometimes do. And yet no greater, but more eminent, As in the firmament Stars by the sun are not enlarg'd, but shown. New taxes, and remit them not in peace) No winter shall abate this spring's encrease." The reader will not fail to observe the occasional obscurities which arise out of the extreme condensation of expression in the foregoing pieces, and in most of those which follow. These passages may always be unravelled by a little attention, and they seldom fail to repay the trouble bestowed upon them. But they must be regarded as unequivocal faults nevertheless. The following is, doubtless, high-fantastical," in the last degree; but it is fine notwithstanding, and an evidence of something more than mere ingenuity. " "Let me pour forth My tears before thy face, whilst I stay here; Pregnant of thee, Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more: On a round ball A workman (that hath copies by) can lay An Europe, Afrique, and an Asia, And quickly make that, which was nothing, all: Which thee doth wear, A globe, yea world, by that impression grow; This world, by waters sent from thee-my heaven dissolved so. O, more than moon, Draw not up seas to drown me in thy sphere! Weep me not dead in thine arms, but forbear Example find To do me more harm than it purposeth; Whoe'er sighs most is cruellest, and hastes the other's death." The feelings which dictated such poetry as this, (for it is poetry, and nothing but real feelings could dictate it,) must have pierced deeper than the surface of both the heart and the imagination. In fact, they wanted nothing but to have been excited under more favourable circumstances, to have made them well-springs of the richest poetry uttering itself in the rarest words. For clearness of expression, melody of versification, and a certain wayward simplicity of thought peculiarly appropriate to such compositions as these, the most successful of our modern lyrists might envy the following trifle: Perhaps the two short pieces which follow, include all the "Stand still, and I will read to thee Along with us, which we ourselves produced. |